MMA Has Come to Stay after African Games Heroics, Says GAMMA
In view of Nigeria’s scintillating performance in Mixed Martial Arts, (MMA), at the 13th African Games in Ghana, Acting Vice President, Global Association of Mixed Martial Arts (GAMMA), Lovethpatra Ekufu has said that the sport has come to stay in Nigeria.
Speaking at a reception organised for the medalists at Lagos Intercontinental Hotel, Victoria Island, yesterday, Ekufu said inspte of all the obstacles, the athletes encountered, they still stood tall.
The road to glory for these new Nigerian heroes was practically strewn with several obstacles. The least of these which was qualifying for the
African Games via a grueling national MMA championship held in February by the Boxing and MMA Hall of Fame, which represents the sport’s global ruling body – GAMMA, in Nigeria.
That the nation paid scant attention to their qualification for the African Games is also underscored by the fact that this Nigerian contingent of nine MMA fighters had to make a tortuos road trip lasting over 10 hours to be in Accra, Ghana for the Games.
However, it did not matter to the Nigerian Nine that the MMA was only being featured - for the first time, as a demonstration with six other sports among 30 total disciplines at the Games, based on amateur MMA rules drawn up by GAMMA.
Uppermost on their minds was proving their mettle against the strong competition from Benin Republic, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Egypt, Sudan, Togo, Uganda, Libya and host, Ghana.
Therefore, it was against severe odds that the nine Nigerian fighters triumphed at the 13th African Games by sweeping the medals in the nine weight categories they featured in.
In grand style, they claimed five gold, four silver and one